Sunday, April 11, 2010

First a bit of background information so that you guys won’t believe that I am completely stupid growing Lophophora and the likes in an unheated greenhouse in Denmark: 1) Most of these plants are “surplus”, i.e. I don’t have room for them anywhere else – lately several plants have been bought specifically for the cold house, though. 2) The greenhouse is located at my summerhouse, left mostly desolate throughout winter, making it difficult to keep it reliably heated. 3) Many cactus species tolerate more frost than is generally assumed; I’m curious which. 4) The winters in Denmark have been rather mild lately, inviting experiments like this.

With this in place I’m ready to recount how the harsh winter, that has just released its cold grip of Denmark, helped me separate the wheat from the chaff (a blatant euphemism for “killing off alarmingly large parts of my collection”). Just to give an understanding of the severity of the winter, the plants saw almost constant frost for more than 10 weeks, with temperatures measured as low as -15 C (5 F) in the area where the plants grow.

Lophophora williamsii var. echinata coming out of winter

Let’s start with one of the success stories. My Trans-Pecos peyote plants are doing quite well, approximately one in eight died and the surviving plants are not too marked by the frost. The plants I'm growing are descending from material originally collected in the Pecos River area, Val Verde County, Texas (JJH 8608293). The Trans-Pecos peyote is the northernmost form of Lophophora williamsii and is also known as Lophophora williamsii var. echinata.

Trans-Pecos peyote surviving the frost

My regular (Mexican and south Texan) Lophophora williamsii plants fared much worse, less than one in ten of the larger plants survived the winter.

[Lophophora williamsii var. echinata] can also survive the much more severe cold of the Big Bend. I have several times had the smaller form from south Texas [L. williamsii var. williamsii] freeze in San Antonio, while this form [L. williamsii var. echinata] growing in the same bed showed no ill effects.

As mentioned the majority of my large “regular” Lophophora williamsii were killed by the frost. But many medium sized seedling plants actually survived while the larger plants (of the same variety) and yearling seedlings succumbed. As this pattern seems to be rather consistent for plants of the same variety, I guess I can’t write all “regular” Lophophora williamsii casualties off to genetics. My theory is that this “size-conditioned” difference in survival must be related to how well the plants were prepared for the winter, which again may be closely related to the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the plant.

The surface-area-to-volume ratio (SA:V) decreases with size, i.e. a large plant will have less surface per unit of volume than a smaller plant. If we use a half sphere as a model for a globular cactus we get a SA:V of 3/r, where r is the radius. Consequently a large plant will need relatively longer time (per unit of volume) to go flaccid and prepare properly for the winter (as all excess water needs to be evaporated through the surface (the epidermis)). Similarly seedlings are more prone to die of drought as an increased SA:V means increased exposure to the environment in general.

To play it safe the coming growing seasons I'll stop watering my large plants well before I let seedlings go drought dormant in preparation for the winter, and in general start winter preparations earlier than I have used to in the past.

Ariocarpus has turned out to be an unconditional coldhouse success. I expected my Ariocarpus fissuratus plants to make it safely through the winter as they originate from locations like Fort Stockton, Texas (JM 122) and Crockett County, Texas (SB 403), but I had doubts about my Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus var. macdowellii plants (SB 100; El Pilar, Coahuila), and had accepted that I would probably loose my Ariocarpus retusus (SB 310; Cuesta la Muralla, Coahuila). Amazingly they all survived the winter in great style almost looking lush and vigorous, like a winter swimmer surfacing with renewed energy after a cold plunge.

Surviving Ariocarpus, Epithelantha, and Leuchtenbergia plants

Epithelantha is another seriously cold tolerant genus. My Epithelantha micromeris var. greggii plants (Cuesta la Muralla, Coahuila, Mexico) all made it; one is seriously damaged, though – it looks like the root is dead while the crown looks fine, so I hope to be able to re-root it. The Epithelantha bokei plants (SB 416; Brewster Co, Texas) also look fine, but due to the extremely dense spination it is hard to say for sure if they are completely undamaged. Strangely the cold has taken the hardest toll on my regular Epithelantha micromeris (SB1327; near Belen, New Mexico) – this variety of E. micromeris is from the northernmost known locality of the species so I had expected the plants to cope better with the frost.

Surviving Obregonia denegrii plants

Last summer I moved a handful of Obregonia denegrii seedlings (VVZ 163; San Vicente, Tamaulipas) to the coldhouse. I really didn’t expect these plants to be cold hardy, but didn’t have room for them anywhere else. Surprisingly approximately two thirds of the plants survived as illustrated in the above picture (the surrounding pots are not empty, each contain a rather large L. williamsii killed by the cold).

Other success stories are Normanbokea valdeziana, Homalocephala texensis, and Mammillaria meiacantha which all made it through the winter without casualties – the Normanbokea plants are even budding. Acharagma roseana is another species that’s shaking off the winter blues and getting ready to bloom – in general Acharagma seems to handle the cold pretty well, even most of my yearling Acharagma aguirreana seedlings survived. Most Escobaria and Echinocereus obviously had minimal problems with the frost.

Frost killed Lophophora williamsii turning to mush

As mentioned above the majority of my larger, regular Lophophora williamsii plants were killed by the frost, but the more tender Lophophora species like Lophophora diffusa and L. fricii are completely eradicated – I’ll probably not experiment further with these species in the coldhouse, the exception maybe being montane varieties of Lophophora fricii.

Dead Lophophora diffusa

Other species that are completely wiped out include Matucana madisoniorum, an unknown Echinopsis hybrid, Ferocactus glucescens (PP 1354), Lithops lesliei (not exactly a cactus, I know ;-), and Harrisia jusbertii. Surprisingly all my Mammillaria grahamii also died – I had expected this species to be more cold hardy.

Most of my saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) also succumbed to the frost – 4 plants look like they might survive, most of them badly damaged, but it is too early to say.

I need to start building a new collection of grafting stock – all Trichocereus plants that I grew in the coldhouse are dead, including Trichocereus pachanoi, T. peruvianus, Trichocereus 'Tom Juul’s Giant', and a Penis Cactus… they are all gone. Even plants that were well prepared for the winter died, so Trichocereus is definitely not as tolerant to frost as I had expected.

Decomposing Trichocereus plants

To put the death toll into perspective this is the coldest winter in 14 years in Denmark (followed by March, a month with the most extreme temperature fluctuations in 14 years, which were not very becoming to my struggling plants either). The frost set in just before Christmas and only lifted again in the beginning of March. The lowest temperatures measured in the area were as low as -15 C (5 F).

Outdoor temperature in late January

Once in a while short bursts of thaw set in quickly followed by frost (as indicated by the above graph), making the conditions even harder for the plants.

Outdoor temperature in mid February

The temperature measurements come from a semi-professional weather station located approximately 1.5 km (~ one mile) from where I grow my plants, so these temperatures are representative for those that my plants where exposed to.

To end on a positive note I expect the frost to have killed off many pests also (including red spider mites). Also, I got an affirmative confirmation that it is actually possible for peyote to survive rather extreme conditions in an unheated greenhouse in Denmark... and I got plenty of room for new plants ;-)

Sunday, April 04, 2010

I don’t have many mature Lophophora fricii plants in my collection (but have quite a few seedling plants “in the works”). Last year one of my few adult L. fricii plants put out several of its characteristic large, striking pink flowers, reminding me why I need to grow more plants of this species ;-)

Lophophora fricii flower

This particular Lophophora fricii plant was started from seed in the spring of 2002 and is, after a slow start (and some neglect), developing into a nice mature specimen.

Flowering Lophophora fricii

I don’t have any locality information for this plant; it was started from seed before I went nerdy and started bothering about “details” like that ;-)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

One month ago I sowed most of my Lophophora seed for this season and thought I would post some pictures of the minuscule seedlings, only a couple of weeks old.

Lophophora williamsii seedlings (VM 534k; El Oso, Coahuila, Mexico)

I again bought seeds originating from the L. williamsii population in El Oso, Coahuila as I'm fascinated with the plants described in the booklet The genus Lophophora – Kaktusy Special 2, 2005 - allegedly this variety forms massive clusters with individual heads measuring up to 15 cm in diameter. The two seedlings in the center front of the above photo have grown from the same seed.

Lophophora decipiens sensu Steven Brack

For a long time I have wanted to grow the Lophophora decipiens offered in the Mesa Garden seed catalog – the plants are alluringly described as “powdery grey”. I have started L. decipiens seeds from Mesa Garden once before but ended up killing off most of the seedlings – to be on the safe side I ordered 100 seeds this time and are going to start them in several, separate batches ;-)

Lophophora fricii seedlings (KS 198; Viesca, Coahuila, Mexico)

I'm growing increasingly enchanted with Lophophora fricii but don't really have any mature specimens of this interesting species (except one plant that is almost of flowering size). To amend this I'm starting batches of Lophophora fricii from seed on a regular basis.

Lophophora williamsii seedlings (SB 418; Presidio County, Texas)

The L. williamsii plants from Presidio County, Texas represent the northernmost form of L. williamsii, also known as Lophophora williamsii var. echinata, and is a self-evident candidate for growing in the coldhouse.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Some time ago Rory contacted me to discuss cacti and mycorrhizal associations (an interesting subject that might be brought up in a later post). During our conversations Rory revealed himself as an avid Lophophora grower with an impressive collection of mature and well-grown plants. Rory has kindly allowed me to share some pictures of his plants.

Flowering Lophophora williamsii, close-up

Large pot of Lophophora williamsii

The largest of the L. williamsii plants in this pot are approximately 25 years old. One of the plants in the central group (a bit above and to the left of the center) has been decapitated and set 4 offshoots. One of these has not yet developed a central growing point and appears somewhat cristate, but Rory expects it to develop as normal with time. The removed top was rooted and is also growing in the central group of plants (slightly below center; wool removed from areoles), and is flowering regularly.

Large pot of Lophophora fricii

According to Rory the compost used for the L. fricii plants are not drying fast enough. Consequently the plants are kept on the dry side which accounts for the red coloration shown by some of them. The largest of the plants (with a total of 9 offsets) has only grown 1cm (~0.4'') in the past 9 years so Rory is planning on repotting the plants in a new mix and expects this to speed up growth.

Lophophora diffusa about to flower

The above L. echinata diffusa plant is just about to flower - unfortunately it’s too overcast for the flowers to open properly.

Large pot of Lophophora williamsii v .caespitosa

To top things off (or just to make me completely envious ;-) Rory also threw in a photo of a nice, mature Ariocarpus fissuratus specimen.

Flowering Ariocarpus fissuratus

I hope you enjoyed this “guest appearance” - I for one would like to see more of Rory’s plants. If you have pictures or information you would like to share, you can drop me a mail at “lophophora [dot] blog [at] gmail [dot] com”.

Monday, March 05, 2007

The last couple of days I’ve been busy starting the next generation of plants from seed. One of the more interesting lophs this year is a variety of Lophophora williamsii originating from El Oso, Coahuila, Mexico. According to The genus Lophophora – Kaktusy Special 2, 2005 this variety forms massive clusters with individual heads measuring up to 15 cm (5.9'') in diameter! Unfortunately it seems the El Oso site is severely threatened by agricultural activities.

I have great expectations for the Lophophora diffusa ssp. kubesai. According to the retailer’s seed catalog this variety is prone to offsetting (in contrast to the typical single stemmed L. diffusa specimens), eventually forming multi-headed clumps as pictured below.
Lophophora diffusa ssp. kubesai
In addition to the Lophophora seeds I also started a handful of Ariocarpus from seed:

I’ve specifically selected extreme northerly types of A. fissuratus as most of the Ariocarpus seedlings will be moved to a coldhouse later in spring (along with half of the L. williamsii and L. fricii seedlings) to experiment with the cold hardiness of these species. The move is also a necessity because my windowsills are getting crammed ;-)
Finally, the following Epithelantha seeds (also for the coldhouse) were sown:

Epithelantha micromeris (JM 101; Sitting Bull Canyon, New Mexico)

Epithelantha micromeris v. gregii (MMR 179; El Oso, Coahuila)

The seeds were bought from Jan Martin Jecminek and Jaromír Dohnalík – details for both are listed in the seed and plant retailers section. All seeds are sown in a mix of limestone gravel, regular soil, and loamy sand (mixed in a 2:2:1 ratio). The pots are placed in closed bags where they will stay until the seedlings are well established - check out the post on growing cactus from seeds for more information on seed starting.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The site is packed with photos of Lophophora plants growing in habitat (see the samples included below) and constitutes the most comprehensive pictorial documentation of the genus that I'm aware of. The pictures are ordered by state and location and can be found at http://lophophora.info/.Lophophora williamsii (Hipolito, Coahuila)Lophophora diffusa (Higuerillas, Queretaro)Lophophora diffusa var. koehresii (San Francisco, San Luis Potosi)Lophophora fricii (El Amparo, Coahuila)

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About Me

Information on the peyote cactus et cetera. The primary focus of the Lophophora Blog is small Mexican cactus species like Lophophora (peyote), Obregonia (artichoke cactus), Acharagma, Ariocarpus (living rock), and Strombocactus but occasionally other subjects will be dealt with as well. Welcome to the Lophoforum and happy growing :-)